The below video makes the situation in Taiwan look really bad and I have no doubt that it is. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that most people (including myself) did not imagine that Ukraine had any fight in them either. You never know what is going to happen when the heat actually comes. It is worth remembering that when Ukraine was first invaded by “little green men” back in 2014 it was rich men funding volunteer groups that first started to really push back against the Russians. This was because the Ukrainian military was seen as inadequate and not serious about pushing back against the Russians. You can see a little bit of that dynamic going on in Taiwan in the below video.

Still, you can’t change the fact that the facts as laid out in the below video are very bad for Taiwan. They are a wealthier country on a GDP per capita basis then South Korea (on purchasing power parity basis, if you look at nominal thy are about the same) so there is no reason they can’t be as serious as South Korea is about their own defense. But it seems that Taiwan is trusting too much in water and the USA or they simply don’t really care at the national level.